Mechanical pencil of the push-button type



Feb. 10, 1953 '0.-Mi. RUSSELL MECHANICAL PENCIL oE THE PUSH-BUTTON TYPE Filed MaIGh 51, 1948 lznmf @ed ./K lasse!! Varney v'Patented Feb. 10, 1953 UNITED MECHANICAL PENCIL OF THE PUSH-BUTTON TYPE Obed M. Russell, Des Plaines, Ill., assignor to Raymond T. Moloney, Chicago, Ill.

Application March 31, 1948, Serial No. 18,171

(Cl. 1Z0-17) 2 Claims.

This invention pertains to writing implements, particularly mechanical or push-button operated pencils and lead feeding or propelling means therefore.

The principal object of the invention is the provision of a simplified and easily manufactured and assembled mechanical feed consisting of fa clutch collet and novel sleeve actuator operated by a push-button element in the cap of the pencil.

Additional objects relate t the provision of a clutch and feed assembly consisting of an insert, a clutch tube slidable in the insert, a reciprocable feed tube operated by the push-button, and a tapered actuator sleeve operatively interconnecting the two tubes for joint advance (to propel the lead) in certain conditions, and to free a clutch collet for restorative movement after the writing lead has been advanced, together with certain assembly features and structural novelties thereafter appearing.

Other objects and aspects of novelty in the pencil relate to details of the construction and operation of the embodiment disclosed hereinafter in View of the annexed drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section through the novel pencil structure;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section along lines 2-2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section along lines 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary vertical section, similar to Fig. 1, but showing the parts in advanced feed ing position; f

Fig. 5 is a magnified sectional detail of the.

clutch collet and operating sleeve in normal position;

Fig. 6 is a perspective detail (with parts shown in section) of the clutch collet and operating sleeve.

Referring to Fig, -1 the pencil consists of the usual tubular body or barrel Ill, with pocket clip II, and clip-retaining bushing I2 threaded into the barrel as at I3.

At the lower end of the barrel is the conventional tapered tip III threadably engaging at I5 the lower end of a machined insert I 6 shouldered at I1 to engage a seating shoulder in the barrel. Within the lower portion of the tip is a friction sleeve I8 through which the writing lead I9 emerges and which serves to prevent short or broken pieces of lead from falling out.

Interiorly of the barrel is a magazine sleeve 20 having crimped into its upper portion a lead baffle 2l' with a central concavity and lead opening i and narrower at its lower end, for reasons to ap- 22 through which the leads are introduced to the magazine space 23. At the upper end of the magazine is a push-button cap or closure 24 frictionally fitting into the magazine sleeve, and having frictionally fitted therein the usual eraser insert 25.

At about the middle of the magazine sleeve a feeding plug 26 is secured by crimping as at 21- with conical infeed opening 28 through which the pencil leads gravitate into the feeding mecha-V msm.

Threaded into said plug as at 29 is a feed tube 30, terminating at its lower end in a head 3 I. The lower end 23A of the magazine sleeve ts slidably over the machined insert IIE; threaded into the upper end of which is another plug 32. Expanded between the feed plug 23 and the plug 32 is a compression spring 33 which normally elevates the magazine sleeve assembly and its push-button cap 2Q, as well as the feed tube 30 to normalize the same, the latter tube being freely slidable in plug 32.

Crimped onto the enlarged head 3I of the feeding tube is a clutch or collet operating sleeve 35, which moves with said tube and the magazine sleeve responsive to operation of the push-button 24. This construction is shown to advantage in Figs. 5 and 6, also.

The interior of operating sleeve 35 is tapered, being wider at its upper end, adjacent head 3| pear.

The lead-feeding clutch means includes a clutch tube 36 (Fig. 6 also) having an enlarged upper end or split collet head 3'1 situated within the tapered operating sleeve 35, and at the lower end of the clutch tube is an enlargement or head 38 swedged thereon and retaining the clutch tube assembly within the base of the machined insert, and limiting the upward movement of this assembly by normalizing or retracting spring 33.

Operation When the parts are in the normal position shown in Figs. 1 and 5, spring 33 elevates magazine tube 2li, and hence the feed tube 30, and hence the clutch operating sleeve 35, so that the narrower tapered portion thereof grips thetapered exterior of the collet head 31 and squeezes the latter closed on the pencil lead, to grip the latter.

sleeve 35 on collet head 31, which grips the pencil lead and, accordingly, forces the latter downwardly to project from the tip for writing.

When the lower enlargement or clutch stopping head 38 reaches the bore shoulder 39, as in Fig 4, the descent or advance of the clutch tube is arrested, but the operating sleeve 35 can continue its downward travel somewhat, with the result that the narrower (lower) portions of the internal taper in sleeve 35 disengage the collet head, releasing the grip thereof on the pencil lead, by reason of which release, the operating seeve, when normalized or reir'rned upwardly by spring 33, does not again grip the collet head until it reaches the upward limit of its return travel, so that the advanced lead will not be retracted.

From the foregoing disclosures, it will appear that the clutch feed consists of an assembly comprising, broadly, the machined insert I6, the clutch tube 36 slidable therein, the actuator or coupling sleeve 35 also slidable in the insert, the magazine sleeve 2B slidable on the insert (and guided also by the barrel) the reciprocable feed tube 3U fixed to the actuator sleeve, and the included normalizing or return spring 33.

The insert assembly is secured in the barrel by the threaded tip ld.

The actuator sleeve 35 normally grips and closes the clutch and advances the same during part of the advancing or feeding movement, then slidably disengages the clutch head or collet during the remainder or overtravel of said advancing movement.

Upon return of the actuator or clutch sleeve 35, the collet head 3l is not again closed upon the advanced lead until the sleeve is substantially in normally elevated position. The headed end 3| of the feed tube does not at any time grab the lead, so that the new leads descending from the magazine will pass freely into the clutch collet or head when the latter is opened.

The assembly may be removed easily from the barrel.

The word insertj as used herein, designates the machined, stepped, member IE, and is defined to mean a member of tubular conguration adapted to nt into assembled relation with other tubular parts, substantially as disclosed.

The term normalized, as used herein, is defined to mean returned to normal, as in the condition oi: collet tube 30, and its associated members 26, 2D, disposed in the normal condition, seen in Fig. 1, by action of spring 33.

Having thus particularly described the construction and operation of the novel pencil mechanism, the invention claimed is:

1. In a mechanical pencil, a barrel having a tapered lower end and an open upper end, a bored insert fitted into the lower end of the barrel, a feeding tube and a collet tube aligned in the bore of the insert, the latter having a collet confronting the proximate end of the feeding tube, a collet-actuating sleeve xed on said proximate end to surround said collet and having an internal taper widened at one end to disengage said collet and permit opening of the same and narrowed at an opposite end to seize and close the collet, said tube ends, collet and sleeve being situated within said insert, the upper end of said insert being spaced from the internal walls of said barrel, a magazine tube having an upper end structure exposed for operation as a plunger at the open end of said barrel and a mid-portion coupled with saidfeed tube to reciprocate the latter and the sleeve responsive to plunger action of said magazine tube, the latter having a lower skirt slidably guided on said spaced portions of the insert, a tip portion at the tapered end of said barrel and threadedly engaged with said insert, lead-gripping friction means in said tip to grip the lead against retraction, said collet tube having an opposite end provided witha stop portion engageable with the lower end of said insert to limit upward movement of the collet tube, said tip affording a stop for said stop portion on downward movement of the collet tube, the tip, barrel, and insert being mutually held in assembly as aforesaid by engagement of the tip with the insert and engagement of the insert with the tapered portion of the barrel, said sleeve having overtravel when the collet tube is stopped downwardly to disengage and release the collet, and to seize and close the collet and elevate the collet tube upon upward movement, and spring means in the barrel normally urging the magazine tube to an upward limit determined by said stop formation on the collet tube aforesaid.

2. In a pencil, clutch and feed means including, a pair of lead feeding tubes reciprocable in axial alignment between opposite limited positions, a coupling sleeve surrounding adjacent ends of said tubes and secured to one tube, a lead clutch adapted to be seized and closed by said sleeve when said one tube is in a normal limited position and coupling said tubes for joint movement away from said normal position to advance the lead, stop means for arresting travel of the second tube after a predetermined amount of said joint movement, said coupling sleeve being of a length to permit overtravel of the one tube after arrest of the second tube, said clutch being re leased from seizure by the coupling sleeve during said overtravel, said coupling sleeve having a tapered portion coacting with said clutch during return travel of the one tube toward said normal position to restore said second tube to normal position without closing said clutch until both tubes are restored to normal position, a third tubular element freely surrounding said adjacent ends of the pair of tubes and said sleeve and clutch parts, a barrel in which said third tubular element is fixed, a magazine cylinder reciprocable in said barrel, and having a lower end telescoping iupon said third tubular element, a lead infeed plug fast with said cylinder at its upper end, a bored plug coni-innig said sleeve and clutch parts in said third tubular element, a compression spring in said cylinder and having one end seated 'against said bored plug and an opposite end against said lead infeed plug fast with said cylinder to move the latter away from said third tubular element to a said normal position, said rst feeding tube being secured with said infeed plug to move said first tube and said clutch correspondingly to said normal position.

OBED M. RUSSELL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,158,991 Steversen May 16, 1939 2,222,295 Kanner Nov. 19, 1940 l FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 220,232 Switzerland June 16, 1942 

